Sunday 8 January 2006 21.25 EST
First published on Sunday 8 January 2006 21.25 EST

In the past few years there has been a sense of mischief and irreverence missing on the WTA Tour. Thankfully it has returned in the famously slight form of Martina Hingis.

This is the same Hingis who blithely remarked last week that she had watched Maria Sharapova during her three-year hiatus and could not really see what all the fuss was about. And this after Hingis had already got her adversarial relationship with the Russian off to a flying start by announcing that it was Sharapova who she was most looking forward to playing on her comeback from retirement. "I want to see what she's got," she said.

Hingis may come to regret those words, especially as Sharapova appears to have recovered from her shoulder injury and is thought to have touched down in Melbourne yesterday, in time to get a week's worth of practice in before the Australian Open starts on January 16.

Sharapova is only one of the many obstacles in Hingis's way in Melbourne, where the Swiss won three singles titles on the bounce in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and made two finals besides.

You can count her old, albeit unpredictable, foes the Williams sisters, Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters in that category, as well as Justine Henin-Hardenne, whom she was due to play in the first round in Sydney in the early hours of this morning.

The list may also include the lesser-known but equally hard-hitting players who have emerged during her three-year break, a group including the teenagers Ana Ivanovic and Nicole Vaidisova.

It is a scary prospect for the 25-year-old Hingis that, with no official ranking, she will go unseeded into the Australian Open draw and could therefore meet any of the above in the first round, the same way she ended up facing Henin-Hardenne in Sydney.

Her return to Melbourne Park, the scene of her greatest triumphs, may well end up being a brief and inglorious one. "The depth is deeper, definitely," Hingis said. "The women's game is getting closer. Every round is a tough round, and physical. You just have general doubts about yourself when you see these big, strong girls, and here I come, I'm probably half the size of most of them. They're all much more muscular, but I've got the skills."

The Williams sisters and Davenport - with whom she always had the friendlier rivalry - have all welcomed the Swiss back, though all of them stopped short at suggesting they see her as a genuine threat either in Melbourne or anywhere else. "I think it adds another great storyline to women's tennis and I think it's going to be very interesting to see how she comes back after a couple of years away from the game," Davenport said guardedly. "I think that it's a very, very tough sport."

The tournament's defending champion, Serena Williams, even said she was "rooting for her, unless she's playing me"a remarks which, were Hingis so inclined, she may find a little patronising.

Williams may be the least of her worries, especially since there are major question marks over the American's fitness due to ongoing knee problems.

The attitude of Hingis's fellow players may change once she has been back on the tour for a sustained period, especially if she readjusts well enough to be considered a serious threat at, say, the French Open.

Hingis has already committed to play in Tokyo next month and at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami in March. It means she will be a regular fixture in the locker and press conference rooms from now on.

Her coaching situation remains unclear, though she may be biding her time before looking at employing someone full-time while her mother, Melanie Molitor, prefers to remain in Switzerland training a crop of youngsters. However, mother and daughter did spend weeks training indoors at the end of last year in an attempt to equip Hingis for the demands of the modern women's game.

Improvements included a first serve with more pop and a more aggressive attitude to points. The changes are designed to allow her the chance to take the initiative, then weave her spell just as she used to in the days when she was the best player in the world.

"Definitely the serve, you have to put it in and have a higher percentage of first serves, otherwise these girls today they're going to kill you," said Hingis. "They're very aggressive and they attack right away, and that's probably the key to start off the rally, and then I always used to be fine in the rallies."

She used to be a good deal better than fine, but "used to" is not a phrase that gets you very far in professional sport. As much as Hingis's endearing lack oftact and playful sense of humour are warmly welcomed back, they may not be enough.